a phone and social media?
by MLRober
Summary: Natsume was known for being odd. That wasn't exactly a bad thing though. The school and almost everyone else likes him the way he is, even if they don't understand. They find it humorous that he doesn't understand technology.


Weirdness was common ever since Natsume Takashi settled into their school. It was practically a fact. Weird people and weird events happened ever since he attended. Of course, they didn't treat him ill of it. In fact, there were fan-clubs made.

One of the fan-clubs was just created because of how beautiful Natsume was. Natsume himself didn't really think something like that could happen, so he was oblivious to it. Though he tried to look manly. He looked feminine, and it bothered him because he didn't want to be perceived as weak. But since he never said anything about it, the fan-club just grew.

Another fan-club consisted of conspiracy theorists. It was almost turned into a club, but the teachers would deny it every time, even though they were also curious. The students did form a monthly meeting, though. It amazed them how odd one person could be. But wait! He actually had a twin!

The other well-known fan-club was the biggest, and simply made of those that decided that yes, Natsume was odd, but they would treat him as normal as they could. It consisted of second-year students. Though some teachers would converse with the headboards of the club often.

There was also a Natsume Protection-Squad. Once again, Natsume was oblivious to it. With smartphones, the group was well connected. The members knew of Natsume's bad habits of not taking care of himself, as well as his reckless and self-sacrificing tendencies. But together they banded a group together that would plot in the background to make sure he stayed healthy.

But back to the main point: Weirdness was normal. Weirdness with a capital because it was Natusme's weirdness that needed a label. And Natsume's weirdness was what brought a lot of bonding around the classroom. Mostly because when you were near Natsume, you prioritized those that you loved more. And some of the Weirdness would make them rely on one another, so bonds were simply formed by that.

**New Phone**

When Natsume fell asleep during class, the teacher let out a knowing sigh. Nishimura let out an awkward laugh, "That's Natsume for you."

Kitamoto shook his head, "Should we wake him, sensei?"

The teacher let out a dry laugh, "As if that would work." He huffed out another sigh before starting up class again.

When Natsume woke up to the lunch bell, he looked dazed and confused. Nishimura laughed openly, "Natsume, I don't know how you do it. Teach me how to fall asleep on a whim, please!"

Natsume blinked at him for a few moments. Sasada, who stayed in the classroom with her friend group, watched as Natsume furrowed his brow and asked, "Why didn't you wake me up?"

This time Kitsmoto cut in with, "We've learned that once you're out, you're out."

Natsume apologizes quickly before sorting his desk. Nishimura then half-hugs him and pulls him closer. Taki and Tanuma enter the classroom a few moments later with their lunches. They stack the desks together and start eating.

A few moments later they were laughing as Nishimura did his best Natsume impression. Of course, Natsume didn't look very amused, but everyone else was smiling, even those across the classroom.

Nishimura got out his phone and looked at it with the phone held away from his face, "What is that, whippersnapper? Technology? Don't know her. What is this?" He raised the phone, "It's ringing! This is not right."

Taki giggled out a snort, "He wouldn't be so vocal about it. He'd just silently slip away and ask Touka-san for help later."

"Or he'd just leave it in his school bag and never check it," Tanuma adds.

The five laugh, although Natsume sweats a little as he says, "How did you know?"

The tables freeze to look at him. Nishimura cracked up immediately putting his arm around Natsume and saying, "That means you have a phone now, right?"

Natsume gave a slight nod before pulling it out of his bag. He shows it to them and says, "I don't know how to figure out what my own number is."

Taki tries to contain her laugh, but she couldn't help it. She laughed into her fist while Tanuma and Kitamoto share looks of grins. Nishimura snatches up the phone. He swipes it open easily, figuring that Natsume didn't know how to put a lock on it, and goes to the contacts. With all the information on the Fujiwara's contacts, he guesses that they put that there for him.

Nishimura makes himself a contact profile, sending an emoji to himself through Natsume's phone. He passes it over to Kitamoto, who does the same thing. Tanuma and Taki follow. It ends with Kitamoto commenting, "Now Sasada can add you to the class group chat for emergencies and homework questions."

"I thought that was for class trips," Natsume murmured.

"It's turned into a memeing frenzy, don't worry," Kitamoto brushes it off.

"Memeing?"

"Oh, Natsume, my young paladin, you are in for a big surprise," Nishimura rattles off. "We'll start slowly. Do you know how to take pictures?"

"It's the camera app," Natsume gave a nod.

"What about social media?" Taki asked. Natsume shook his head. "Okay, okay, we'll show you around. First, you need to download Flutter. It's the best one right now. Gem and Franways changed their policies, and Squid keeps updating it in bad ways."

"I thought Flutter was a board game," Natsume murmurs, but the friend group hears it, smiling at their little oblivious friend.

"Flutter is to post pictures and videos," Taki corrected.

"Gem is for messaging," Kitamoto supplied. "But they started bleeping out curse words, so us teens are angry."

"Franways has the most users," Tanuma said.

"Yep, and it's worthless," Nishimura supported. "It's pictures and text, along with messaging, but it has the most bugs and glitches."

"So Flutter is what I need to get?" Natsume asked.

Nishimura nodded, "Downloading it right now."

"..."

"Don't be that way, Natsume!"

"Make sure to follow us," Taki said.

"No problem, pretty girl."

Taki irked, "Never say that to me again, please." Tanuma laughed beside her. Kitamoto shook his head in disdain.

Nishimura sighed as if something ruffled his feathers, and leaned into Natsume. He asked, "What's your email and password?"

Natsume took his phone from Nishimura's hand and tapped on the screen. Flutter opened to a new page, making Nishimura grin. Natsume asked, "Now what?"

"Just hand it back over," Nishimura said as he collected the phone back. He tapped on it and said, "You're now following us, Sasada, Tsuji, and the school's page. It never updates, but sometimes kids contact them in emergency situations."

"Make his profile too," Taki added.

Nishimura frowned, "Natsume, you have no pictures yet. I'll have to use one from offline. Are you okay with being an old man cartoon thing?"

"Oh, I'll send a pic of Natsume to the phone," Taki suddenly had an idea. She got out her own phone. She scrolled through her gallery, giddy at the one she found, "He's smiling in this one!"

Nishimura sent her a high-five before receiving the message and using the photo as his profile picture. Natsume looked soured as Nishimura finished setting it up. He then asked the tables, "How does this sound for his description? 'Age: 16, mentally 89.' Good, right?"

"I think he's more around 72," Kitamoto said.

"I don't act that old," Natsume argued.

"It's okay, Natsume," Tanuma comforted. "We'll take you to bingo night if you ask."

Ogata Yuriko was in her room, sitting on her bed listening to music, when a notification popped up. She was going to brush it off. A new follower wasn't anything particularly interesting. At least, it wasn't until she saw the name.

"Natsume," she whispered like it was some sort of secret. She clicked on it, the Flutter notification screen taking up the whole phone. She clicked on Natsume's notification and was opened to Natsume Takashi's profile.

She saw he was following around 10 profiles. All were friends except an actor account and a school. She also found that he already had over 30 followers, so she tapped on the button to become one too.

She let out a small laugh at his description. She assumed since it pointed out just how much of an old man Natsume was, it was written by a friend of his.

She tapped on the posts, to find one was made an hour earlier, his very first post.

[A pig-cat looking creature laid down chewing on dango while Tanuma, who was tagged in the post, along with two others sat on the side of the river bank. Meanwhile, two boys on the riverbed had fishing poles out, looking down at the water in excitement. Taki, the only girl there, was reaching out to the pig-cat, and Natsume himself had a soft smile on his face as he used selfie-mode to take the photo.]

She quickly liked the picture and went to back to her music listening. She was content knowing he had friends of his own now.

Shibata Katsumi wasn't very surprised to have a couple more followers. He was pretty popular in his school. Other than his quick-temper, people liked him over-all. And ever since being apart of a secret, he had gotten better at not exploding.

But then he saw the name Natsume. He clicked on it immediately, maybe even subconsciously. He looked at it for a few seconds before following Natsume right back. He felt the tension leave his shoulders.

He was soon drawn back to reality, though. One of his buddy's called out, "Shibata! Come on, it's right this way."

He nodded before running up to catch the group.

A girl in the group commented, "If this place turns out to be actually haunted, I'm kicking all your asses."

"Oh, is someone afraid?" A tall guy leered on with a teasing smirk.

"Don't start, Tsukishima," she snapped at him. "I'm just saying if someone tries to grope me in there, you're all dead."

Tsukishima gave a quick nod of understanding as he looked warily to the scary girl. Shibata felt a laugh roll out of his mouth.

"Good thing ghosts don't exist," Tsukishima noted. Shibata rolled his eyes at the tall teen. Tsukishima noticed and smirked his way, "You think otherwise, Shibata?"

"My lips are sealed," Shibata shrugged it off.

"Oh, you're not fun anymore," he laughed. "Fine, then, Jirou, what do you think?"

The second girl in their group looked up from her phone. She said, "I'll believe it when I see it."

"Me too," the other girl agreed.

"I thought you did believe in ghosts, Yuni," Jirou said.

"Well, yeah, but I've never actually seen one. I just follow this page on Flutter. It's centered around this one kid, who they never reveal the identity of, and even blur out his face and nametag."

"That's not creepy at all," Tsukishima said sarcastically.

"Why is it centered around a kid?" Shibata asked as they walked down the darkening street.

"Well, it's a private page so if anything turns out to be real, it's a little more under wraps," Yuni said. "Anyway, they think the guy can see things no one else can."

"A mental illness," Tsukishima guessed.

"They say he talks to what he sees, so maybe," Yuni conceded. "But," she said, "sometimes things move, and now the student population is just trying to figure it out. I'd be concerned if it was true though. He comes to school with bruises and new wounds weekly."

"Abuse," Jirou pointed out.

"I don't think so," Yuni disagreed. "They say his newest foster family is actually some of the kindest people they've met."

"Does the kid know there's a page about him?" Shibata asked concerned.

"Well, maybe. They say he doesn't use technology."

"Can we focus back to the haunted house?" Jirou asked in a bored tone.

"Did you bring the flashlights?" Yuni asked Tsukishima, who gave a confirmation nod. "Rad."

Hello! There's an update! On AO3, archive of our own, I made this into a series. I won't be updating on here. It's called Weirdness with a Capital W by LilaRobin.


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